Laura Wheeler Waring (May 16, 1887 – Feb. 3, 1948)
Waring was an influential painter during the Harlem Renaissance and a contemporary of W.E.B. Du Bois. As a member of the NAACP, Waring worked as an illustrator for the publication The Crisis. She is known for her portraits of famous Black people including Marian Anderson, Jessie Fauset and James Weldon Johnson.
NPG.67.82
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Harmon Foundation
Jean-Michel Basquiat (Dec. 22, 1960- Aug. 12, 1988)
Basquiat was a star of the Neo-Expressionism art movement during the 1970s and ’80s. He started his career as a graffiti artist under the name “SAMO” and would become a peer of Andy Warhol. In the ’80s, his art could sell at $50,000 easily in the art market. As soon as his career took off, drugs and other mental issues took hold of his life and he died at only 27.
